Research & Development

Research at Apotex includes the development of both generic and innovative pharmaceuticals.

New generic products have been a critical component of Apotex's growth and have resulted in the development of substantial expertise in formulation development, synthetic and analytical chemistry.

Research on new chemical entities is carried out by ApoPharma Inc., a Subsidiary of Apotex, where our current focus is in the areas of hematology, neurodegenerative diseases and psoriasis. Apotex's first innovative drug, Ferriprox™, is approved in over 50 countries for treating iron overload in Thalassemia. More recently, extensive research has begun on developing permeant iron chelators for the treatment of several neurodegenerative diseases where the impact of modifying intracellular iron metabolism is being studied both in animals and humans. Our newest area of research, psoriasis, saw ApoPharma initiate clinical trials in 2008 to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a novel dipeptide that has demonstrated a remarkable safety profile in animal toxicity testing.

R & D expenditures for Apotex in 2007 was over $181 million, representing close to 18% of sales, placing Apotex in the top 10 research and development companies and in the top two pharmaceutical companies in Canada.